The traditional plant holding stake has been either a piece of wood or in certain circumstances, bark which is inserted in a pot for outdoor or indoor plants and inserted on the ground adjacent to the plant for outdoor plants. Such wooden stakes typically are not adjustable in height and are placed when the plant is young, selected so they will have sufficient height throughout the growing life of the plant. If the plant is an ornamental plant, the plant stake invariably detracts from the overall appearance. For this reason, such natural appearing materials such as bark stakes have been used and conventional wooden stakes have been stained in a natural color such as green or brown. Still they obvoiusly present the appearance of a foreign element in the environment.
A number of telescoping plant stakes have been developed of simple design and some include such complex additions as automatic waterer's and the like using the body of the plant stake as a conduit for water from an uppermost reservoir.
Despite the many telescoping plant stakes which have been developed, none have reached the acceptance of the market place to any extent for a number of reasons. One is that producing a telescoping stake of any size and any number of sections is significantly more expensive than a simple wooden stake. More importantly, plant stakes of a telescoping variety have quite ofter been unreliable in holding their position. It is essential that a telescoping plant stake be extended to the required length whereupon it provides support for the leaves but also maintains its position without collapsing.